Victim's home was target of repeated attacks with explosive devices

Published 10:49 pm, Tuesday, June 26, 2012

ROTTERDAM — A fourth person faces arson charges in a vandalism spree in which explosives were used to blow up the property of a woman's boyfriend, according to Assistant District Attorney John Healy.

Healy said Tuesday that Michael Garry, 31, was charged Monday in Rotterdam Town Court with third-degree felony arson and misdemeanor criminal mischief for allegedly placing an explosive device that shattered the windshield on the victim's pickup truck on March 11.

The victim's East Claremont Avenue home was allegedly targeted more than a dozen times in March because Lawrence Ahrens was upset he was dating Ahrens' former girlfriend, said police and prosecutors.

On Tuesday, Ahrens, 33, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Schenectady County Court on 48 criminal charges, including five counts of arson, a dozen counts of criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of attempted arson, said Healy.

Ahrens and two alleged accomplices, Amy Brzoza, 31, and her boyfriend, 33-year-old Michael Chambers, all remain at the county jail after being indicted Friday on similar charges.

Brzoza and Chambers will be arraigned in the coming days, the prosecutor said.

The indictment, which was handed up Friday, included offenses from several more dates than the original three with which the trio had been charged involving the East Claremont Avenue dwelling off High Bridge Road in Rotterdam.

Specifically, the defendants are accused of throwing explosive devices there on numerous dates in March, said Healy.

The victim, a man in his 40s, moved out after the March 11 incident.

In April, Ahrens, Chambers and Brzoza, were arrested following a nearly two-month-long investigation into attacks on the man's home.

Police and prosecutors said Ahrens paid Chambers $100 on more than one occasion to throw an explosive device consisting of a homemade container, which used compressed flash powder and a fuse, at the residence.

Rotterdam police, working with the State Police, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Schenectady County district attorney's office, kept the house under surveillance for three weeks until the arrests were made April 22.